10樓. Montréal

2013/09/23 07:51

Well, that is where an independent, fair, and impartial judicial has to play in a democracy. My law professor at Mcgill U. say: "The true meaning of the so called Western Democray is the rule of law instead of the ruld of man."

Given so, popular voting is just a means toward the end, not the end itself. That is, popular voting serves to uphold an independent, fair, and impartial judicial system which monitors the elected official/ representatives between two elections. Otherwise, if a citizen can exercise his/her civil rights only every four years, how could this be called a democratic society?

9樓. Montréal

2013/09/23 04:12

You said "... we lack the legislative and judicial impartiality and independence."  Well, these characters were not always there thru the American history.  The jury system was brought in because, otherwise, there would not have been ways to check and balance a corrupt judge. As to "impatiality", it did not exist as near as in the 1960's when human rights were still reserved for the "whites". In the 19th century in the U.S., it had always been that the Italian immigrants voted for Italian candicates while the Irish for the Irish.  And vote-buying was wide-spread and rampant.  The Economist magazine once described the bribery, vote-buying, and corrupt politics in the early days of the Republic of China in Peiking (once Chiang-Kai-Shek moved the capital to Nanking, there was no legislature no more) and concluded that it's "just like any democracy."

8樓. Montréal

2013/09/23 02:02

Generally agree with what you said.  But then again, it takes long time for the general public to be conscious enough to stand up and oppose those corrupt legislators. 

This is what happened in the U.S.  Back in the 19th century, the politics in the U.S. could be even muddy then nowadays in Taiwan. 

Even in the 20th century, Al Capon ruled Chicago for almost a decade.  The legacy of Al Capon is felt long after he is gone. Chicago remained a corrupt city for many decades afterward. 

So it really takes time. 

7樓. steve

2013/09/22 09:56

有什麼樣的選民，就選出什麼樣的民代。
國之將亡，必有妖孽，在台灣妖孽還是成群的。這也怪不得別人，有什麼樣的選民，就選出什麼樣的民代。

6樓. OldMan - 風景線

2013/09/21 11:23

我也每天用鋼筆做數獨。

我是僑民，可以隔洋看連續劇。可是諸位看官島民們，要大家站起來，告訴那些烏鴉政客：下台吧！ 台灣的沉淪或提升，在乎人民，要掌握自己及子孫的前途，支持法理，唾棄濫情。

5樓. 悠遊七海

2013/09/20 23:26

台灣民主權責不對稱，政治人物寡廉鮮恥，只知享權不肯負責，就像派克筆套一樣，空有其表！

4樓.

2013/09/20 01:14

漏了一個近年立委最常幹的好事：批鬥階級、剝削別人的荷包，但絕對不會省自己好處..

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3樓. ‧新月‧

2013/09/17 19:27

台灣是過份的民主，沒辦啦！

2樓. 謎謎-綠窗蝶夢覺來遲

2013/09/17 08:50

一筆天書

自從年輕網友慫恿我加入臉書鋼筆俱樂部分享毛筆字（後來我也寫了

一些鋼筆字），方知有一批人瘋鋼筆，應說是買各種形式的從普通到

昂貴的鋼筆.擁有好多好多筆，可是貼出來的字，多半令人驚駭！

甚至中文系的字也很恐怖。還好他們還是稍想寫字的人，總會進步吧...

1樓. abcteddy

2013/09/17 07:47

鋼筆

我從小到大，最常用的反倒是鉛筆。鋼筆基本沒太用過。

突然想起來，因為我老爸寫了一首好字，所以他最在意筆的好壞。因此他自己就有不少大中小號不等的狼毫羊毫毛筆，鋼筆也有好幾枝英雄牌鋼筆(大陸國產)和派克簽字筆。

還記得每次他看到我寫的字都皺眉頭，直說“男人應該寫一手好字，你自己看看你這字，和狗爬差不了多少”。我總是回他說“現在誰還寫字？都用電腦打字啦。老土(最後一句是我心裡話啦，不敢說的)”